Professional associations in Egypt have begun clamping down on graduates from private universities who gained admission to higher education with school-leaving marks far lower than those set by state-run institutions.
The American University in Cairo has suspended classes because of student protests, reports the Egypt Independent. On Sunday students objecting to an annual 7-percent increase in tuition barricaded campus gates and blocked access for faculty members and fellow students, leading to heated confrontations.
A decree by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to establish a national scientific research project has fuelled a 20-month dispute between the private Nile University and a research institution managed by Nobel Prize for Chemistry laureate Ahmed Zewail.
Administrators and students at Egypt's private Misr International University are locked in a dispute following protests that turned violent, forcing the suspension of classes.
In June this year the World Bank published a report, Benchmarking Governance as a Tool for Promoting Change: 100 Universities in MENA Paving the Way, which measures the governance structures of 100 universities in the Middle East and North Africa, or Mena, region. Public and private higher education institutions in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq were surveyed.
Georgetown University has come under fire for inviting Ramy Jan, a founding member of the Egyptian Nazi Party, to speak at a conference next month called “Egypt and the Struggle for Democracy.” The university responded on Wednesday by rescinding its invitation.